Diamond Digital Marketing Group

Category: Teamwork

  • Task Properties in Teamwork.com

    Task Properties in Teamwork.com

    Definition

    Teamwork.com

    Teamwork.com is a SaaS (Software as a Solution) which is a Project Management System applied in Diamond Digital Marketing (DDM) to manage the exeuction of all project. For details about what Teamwork.com is, please refer to the article What is Teamwork.com

    Task Properties

    Task Properties in Teamwork.com is any attribute (i.e. property) other than the customized Task Description written by users.

    Teamwork Task Properties
    Teamwork Task Properties

    How to use the Task Properties

    Task Properties provide the prerequisite information to make the task executable. Both Assignor and Assignee can and will use the Task Properties to comprehend and complete the Task. Let’s enumerate the highlighted Task Properties one by one to go through their usage.

    Task Completion Status

    Teamwork Task Status Completion
    Figure 1 – Teamwork Task Status Completion

    The  checkbox in Figure 1 shows the Task Completion Status.

    Obviously, it will be ticked after the Task is classified as Completed. However, it is not as easy as you think on how to classify a Task as completed.

    In the perspective of an assignee, the assignee may regard the Task as completed simply after all the output in the Task Description is delivered. 

    However, in the perspective of an assignor, the assignor will need to review the Task before it can be classified as completed. Besides, if the Task is marked as completed by the assignee, the assignor will have no clue to find out the Task lists which he/she has to review.

    Therefore, Task Completion Status should only be modified by the Assignor.

    (i.e. Assignee should NOT modify the Task Completion Status)

    If the assignee wants to notify the assignee that he/she has completed the Task, the Board Column should be used. Details will be elaborated in the later paragraph of this article

    Prority

    Task Property Priority
    Task Property Priority

    The Priority(High/Medium/Low) button will NOT be used by assignor and will be used by assignee only in the situation described the article Daily Routine Communication Protocol for All Teammate.

    It is not recommended to use the Priority button to classify the task due to the fact that priority is a relative concept which the value (High/Medium/Low) will change from time to time. If every task is classified as High, then the classification will be meaningless.

    Besides, If there is more than one assignor for an assignee, the priority button will be meaningless due to the fact that each of the assignor may regard his/her task as high priority, which has no help for the assignee to decide which task should go first. 

    Please be understood that we do not use the Priority button does not mean that we will not have another mechanism to classify the priority of the Task. 

    Progress & Time

    Teamwork Task Property Progress And Time
    Teamwork Task Property Progress And Time

    The Progress & Time button is consisted of 2 functions:

    Estimated time to complete

    Estimated time to complete will be provided by the assignor every time when the assignor assigns the task to the assignee. It is an crucial information for the assignee to delivery the task properly, which can be demonstrated in following scenarios:

    1. While the Estimated time to complete a task is set to 1 hour , if the assignee based on his/her experience and realises that this task is impossible to be completed within 1 hour, the assignee should raise out the problem (and raise out loudly!). It may either the assignee misunderstand the Task Instruction, or the Task Instruction is really unfeasible. No matter how, it is the duty of the assignee to raise out the problem BEFORE he/she carry out the task.
    2. In another scenario, still while the Estimated time to complete a task is set to 1 hour, but this time the assignee has no experience or idea on whether or not the task can be completed within 1 hour, it is the duty for the assignee to raise out when he/she has already spent 1 hour to do the task, no matter the task is completed or not. This may be due to either the low quality of the estimation from the assignor, or the assignee misunderstand the task instruction. No matter how, this is a problem to be addressed and optimised , which makes the estimation in the next task to be more precise.

    Therefore, both the assignor and the assignee should pay extra attention on the Estimation time to complete. 

    Progress so far (0%)

    The Progress button will NOT be used by assignor and will be used by assignee only in the situation described the article Daily Routine Communication Protocol for All Teammate.

    In fact, if you don’t know what is 100% of a completion of a task, you will have no idea on what is 50% completion. The definition of Completion between assignor and assignee will always unlikely be the same. And therefore, it the Progress % of the task will be meaningless if the definition is not be synchronised between 2 parties.

    Followers

    Teamwork Task Property Followers
    Teamwork Task Property Followers

    As an assignor or assignee, you can either use the Followers button to manage the followers of the task, or simply use the comment handler (e.g. @someone) in the comment of the task so that the target teammate will automatically become the followers of the task.

    For how to use the comment handler, please refer to the article How to Comment in Teamwork.com

    Tags

    Teamwork Task Property Tags
    Teamwork Task Property Tags

    The purpose of the Tags button is to give 1 (or more) Tag(s) to the task such that either assignor or assignee can classify the Task to any category as you wish, which can be easily found out by applying the Tag Filter. 

    As an assignor and assignee , if you think any tag would facilitate you to carry out the task, please feel free to use the tag as much as you want. 

    The only concern is to make sure that you have a systematic way to name the tag such that the tag can be uniquely identified (from other tags or the tags created by other teammates).

    Task Property Tag
    Task Property Tag (R&D + Role Model)
    Task List Filter By Tag
    Task List Filter By Tag through Task List View

    Dependencies

    Teamwork Task Property Dependencies
    Teamwork Task Property Dependencies

    Dependenciesmeans which another task should be completed before you can carry out the current task. It simply create the task chain which make you (as an assignor) to carry out the task in sequence.

    The Dependencies button can be found in both Parent task and Sub Task.

    Repeats

    Teamwork Task Property Repeats
    Teamwork Task Property Repeats

    The Repeats button can set individual tasks to repeat at specific intervals. Once you setup a specific task as a repeated task, the sub tasks will automatically be created, which means a new task# will also be created. Therefore, when you use the Repeats button, please take into following consideration:

    1. If you don’t mind a new Task# is created every time a new sub task is created ,then the Repeats button is appropriate. For example , if you want to assign the task to the assignee requesting him/her to submit a weekly report to your client, then the Repeats button is best fit due to the fact that the weekly report tasks for each week are independent.

    On the contrary , if it is better to consolidate all the comment and feedback into one Task# every time the task is updated periodically, then the Repeats button is not appropriate. For example, If you want to send the comment log to your client containing all the comments and feedbacks for a specific task, then it is better to consolidate all the materials into one task instead of separate it in different Task#.

    The Repeats button can only be found in Parent task (i.e. cannot be found in Sub Task)

    Privacy

    Teamwork Task Property Privacy
    Teamwork Task Property Privacy

    Privacy means you may only want the Task or comments to be seen by only some of the people. As a assignor or assignee , you can configure the Privacy in following target:

    1. Task List
    2. Task Comment

    Put it in another word, you cannot configure the privacy in a specific Task. 

    The Privacy setting is useful especially in the scenario that you want to have an internal discussion with your teammate before you submit the deliverable to your client. Or in another scenario that as there are too many back and forth discussion comment which may disturb the decision of the client, and therefore you set the restricted privacy only to your internal team.

    Teamwork Comment Set Privacy
    Teamwork Comment Set Privacy
    Task Property Task List Privacy
    Task Property Task List Privacy

    Reminders

    Teamwork Task Property Reminders
    Teamwork Task Property Reminders

    The word Reminders is self-explained that no matter you are an assignor or assignee , you can both set a reminder to remind yourself or your teammate to carry out the task any day in the future. 

    The reminded target will receive a reminder email when the time it met. Feel free to use the Reminders function as you wish!

    Board Column

    Teamwork Task Property Board Column
    Teamwork Task Property Board Column

    Board Column is a kan-ban board which can let the assignee to switch the Task Status after he/she had carried out the specific action to the Task.

    By default, there are 11 Task Status for the assignee to choose as below:

    Task StatusDescription
    00 : Start WorkingThe assignee immediately changes the Task Status to 00: Start Working such that the assignor will know that the assignee did not miss the task and acknowledged the task.  
    01: Wait Approve – DDM PMThe task is completed by the assignee and is seeking for approval from the Project Manager (PM) in DDM Group.
    02: Wait Approve – Client 1st LevelThe task is approved by DDM PM and is seeking approval from the 1st level of the client. (which may be the Marketing Executive from client’s side)
    03: Wait Approve – Client 2nd LevelThe task is approved by the client’s 1st level and is seeking approval from the 2nd level of the client. (which may be the Marketing Manager or the boss itself)
    04 : Wait Client ResponseFurther input is required to be provided from the client before the task can move forward.
    05 : ModifyingIf there is any comment or feedback provided from Task Status 02/03/04, the assignee can switch the Task Status to 05 such that the approver will know that the assignee is working on the Task before the next approval.
    06: PendingThe Task is pending
    07 : Approved – DDM PMCorrespond to the Task Status 01
    08 : Approved – Client Final LevelCorrespond to the Task Status 03
    09 : Conditional Approved – Client Final LevelCorrespond to the Task Status 03 or 08
    10 : Not ApplicableThe task is not applicable to be executed. It may happen in the Sub Task which is created by the Task List Template. 
    11 : Task CompletedTask is completed. It should switch the status by the assignee. This Task Status 11 replaces the Task Completion Status button which mentioned earlier in this article. 

    It is strongly recommended the assignee to switch the Task Status IMMEDIATELY after the Task Status is changed. Which means:

    1. Do NOT wait for all other tasks to switch the Task Status in one batch at the end of the date. Please be understood that the main purpose of the Task Status is for providing updated and real-time information for the assignor to understand the progress of the whole project. The assignor will also assign any other related tasks to another teammate based on the Task Status you have modified. In a nutshell, don’t assume that you are the only one who will read the Task Status. Always be a virtuous teammate who keeps communication duty as the 1st priority. 

    As an assignee , you can use the Board Column to see the Task Status throughout the project in a Kan-Ban Board view. You are expected to read the Task Board every day before you start working so that you may have a comprehensive understanding on the priority of your task on that day. 

    Teamwork Task Property Board Column Example
    Teamwork Task Property Board Column Example

    Who should do this

    Task Property Priority
    Task Property Priority

    Who should do this simply means which teammate you are going to assign the task to (i.e. the Assignee). Both assignor and assignee can add/remove assignee as per wish. Besides, you can also assign more than one assignee per Task. 

    Date

    Teamwork Task Property Date
    Teamwork Task Property Date

    Date consists of Start Date and Due Date. While this property is self-explained , the only reminder to you is that it is the duty for the Assignor to fill in BOTH Start Date and Due Date in the task. If either one of the Date is missed, the assignee cannot use the filter to screen out the related Task. 

    On the contrary, as an assignor , if you cannot see the Start Date or Due Date in the task, please raise out to the assignor.

    Sub Task

    Teamwork Task Property SubTask
    Teamwork Task Property SubTask

    SubTask is the child task of a Parent Task. One Parent Task can have many SubTasks, while one SubTask will only have one Parent Task. Each SubTask will have its own SubTask number. So you can expect the hierarchy of the Task as below:

    1. Task List Template
      1. Task List
        1. Task (Parent Task)
          1. SubTask

    Whenever you assign a task to a teammate , that teammate will automatically be assigned to all the SubTask of its Parent Task.

    Both assignor and assignee are welcome to create the SubTask.

    Log Time

    Teamwork Task Property Log Time
    Teamwork Task Property Log Time

    Log time means as an assignee, you log the time you spent on a specific task. 

    By default, it is your (assignee) duty to log the time spent on Task or Subtask. 

    The main purpose of logging the time is not to monitor whether you (as an assignee) have been working hard or not. (in fact , in DDM Group we would have another mechanism to measure your contribution and achievement). 

    On the contrary, to log time will:

    1. Prevent the assignee to be overwhelmed in a particular task.
    2. To keep the statistic such that the assignor can fine-tune the expected production lead time for the next similar task. 
    3. If we can see the task is consuming too many labour hours, it is time for both the assignor and assignee to see if the Task is in the right track. 

    Reminder for how to log the time:

    1. You can log the time more than once in the same task.
    2. By default, you are always expected to log the time in every single Task / Subtask. 
    3. 100% precision is not required. ±10% variance is acceptable.
    Teamwork Task Property Log Time Example
    Teamwork Task Property Mulitple Log Time Example

    Insert/edit code sample { }

    Insert/edit code samples simply apply the typesetting in both Task Description and Comment of the Task such that the readability of the content is increased by the viewer to visually classify the content in the typesetting as a specific object that is needed to pay attention. You can always apply the typesetting in following objects:

    1. Special object that is needed to pay attention.
    2. Programming Code
    3. Clickable Object / Click Path
    Teamwork Task Property Insert Edit Code Sample
    Teamwork Task Property Insert Edit Code Sample
  • How to Comment in Teamwork.com

    How to Comment in Teamwork.com

    Definition

    Comment in Teamwork.com can be used to response any Task , SubTask or Milestone by either assignee (i.e. collaborator) or the assignor (i.e. Project Manager) of the Task.

    How Comment in Teamwork.com looks like

    Example Cap Screen Of Teamwork Comment
    Example Cap Screen Of Teamwork Comment

    What Problem Patterns the Comment solved

    Accessability

    Not only can you use the Teamwork.com interface to place the comment, but also you can place the comment via replying by their mobile phone the comment email sent to the collaborator registered email address, which is good for the collaborator who is not always stuck to the computer.

    Task Instruction Optimisation

    All the Task Comments will be reviewed by the assignor. In case the assignee had left a feedback in the Task Comment that for some reasons he/she could not execute the task, for example, due to the lack of Login Password Credential provided in the Task Input, the assignor will update the Task Instruction Framework Template such that the same type of Task can be carried out smoothly next time. 

    In this sense, the Task Comment is acting as a media of nurturing the positive loop of optimising the quality of Task Instruction.

    As a Knowledge Repository in DDM’s Group

    Knowledge Repository means a knowledge library which stores both the theory and execution experience of carrying out a task. No matter the experience is successful or failure , they are both valuable as a failure experience can eliminate a trial and error testing of a specific task. 

    While all these theories and experiences are stored in the comment, the Knowledge Repository in DDM Group will crawl the Task comments so that the teammates can refer to this Knowledge Repository when they face the same type of task.

    Guideline on how to Comment in Teamwork.com

    While you can write whatever content you want in the comment, there are some little tricks for you to communicate well.

    Mention a specific Collaborator

    Please always mention a specific collaborator that you want him to read the comment, otherwise all the collaborators inside the loop can and will read the comment and they will be disappointed because the comment is irrelevant to some of the collaborators.

    You can mention a particular collaborator by simplying typing in the comment box like the example in below:

    @Tom

    If you want to mention the whole Company, you can type in the comment box like the example in below:

    @DDM1

    Replying previous Comment

    Unfortunately there is no nested comment in teamwork.com. (i.e. you cannot comment the comment). As an alternative, you can create a new comment and refer the previous comment that you want to reply

    1. Visit the comment that you want to reply
    2. Copy Link
    Copy Link In Teamwork Comment
    Copy Link In Teamwork Comment

    You will copy the link like below:

    https://diamonddm.teamwork.com/#tasks/21835467?c=20415136

    21835467 is the Task# , while 20415136 is the Comment# (i.e. c=)

    1. Copy the Comment URL into a new comment
    2. Press Icon Black Quote in the Comment URL
    Teamwork Comment Quote Previous Comment
    Teamwork Comment Quote Previous Comment

    Or alternatively you can simply copy and paste the referring text and add a Icon Black Quote as a blockquote so that the reader will understand that the Comment under the quote below will be the reply of the quoted Comment.

    Please be reminded that you should NOT blockquote the new comment you just added. You should only blockquote the text in previous commnet. Otherwise , the reader will have no idea on which paragraph is quoted from the previous comment, and which pargraph is newly written by you.

    Answering Output Request

    If the purpose of leaving the comment is for answering the request from the Output session in the Task Instruction, following rules should be complied:

    1. The number of answers should always match the number of output requests in the [Output] Session. I.e. If there is 2 Output Requests in the [Output] Session in the Task Instruction, you should always reply 2 answers in the comment.
    2 Outputs Request In Output Session
    2 Outputs Request In Output Session
    1. ALWAYS write the Output# (referring to the Output# in the [Output] Session in Task Instruction) PAIRING with the associated answer in the comment.2

    Output#2

    The answer of output#2 is that ……

    Comment which can only be read by DDM Group internally

    Occasionally you may want to place comment only to your teammate and don’t want your client to read that comment. You can easily do this by

    1. Privacy > Set Privacy
    2. Tick (or untick) anyone you want (or not want)
    Teamwork Comment Set Privacy
    Teamwork Comment Set Privacy

    Leave Comment via Email Reply

    Sometimes when you cannot access the Teamwork.com interface or you are outside and only have a mobile phone on hand, you can leave the Comment to the task by simply replying the Email sent from Teamwork.com regarding a specific Task.

    Teamwork Task Comment Email
    Teamwork Task Comment Email
    Replying Teamwork Comment In Gmail Interface
    Replying Teamwork Comment In Gmail Interface

    After you have replied the comment by sending an reply email via your Email Interface, your reply can automatically be shown in the Comment of the associated Task inside the Teamwork.com interface.

    Reply the Comment with Cap Screen or Image

    Besides attaching image files via File Attachment, you can simply directly copy and paste the cap screen or image into the Comment Box via the Teamwork.com Interface.

    DO NOT forget to wait until you can see the uploading bar shows 100% before you press Save Comment.

    Directly Copy and Paste Images Into Teamwork Task Comment
    Directly Copy and Paste Images Into Teamwork Task Comment

    Conclusion

    After you have placed the comment , as a good citizen please always type (and only type) the #Task + Comment # (e.g. #28929393c20392733) in the associated Project Whatsapp Group and mention (e.g. @Tom) the recipient that you have already placed a Comment in Teamwork to remind him/her to read the Comment.

    Good Practice of the conversation in Whatsapp message on reminding the reipcient will be as below:

    @Tom

    #28929393c20392733

    2024 Sales Report

    Please always be reminded that Whatsapp Group is acting as a reminder only. Therefore, only 3 components are supposed to be shown in the reminder Whatsapp Message:

    1. Group Participant that you want to mention
    2. #Task + Comment#
    3. Identifiable Task Topic

    Always encourge the participants to check the details via Teamwork.com Interface.

    1. Provided that DDM is the target company that you want to mention as a whole. ↩︎
    2. Imagine if there is 10 Output requests in the Output session and you didn’t enumerate which Output# you answered in the comment, how can the Assignor know which Output# you have done and which you have not? ↩︎
  • Inviting Collaborator to Join Project Management System

    Inviting Collaborator to Join Project Management System

    Definition

    Project Management System

    In DDM Group, we will adapt teamwork.com as the Project Management System, which is used by tens of thousands of orangisation in the world.

    Whom to Invite

    Administrator

    Supervisors or Project Managers in DDM Group will be invited as Administrator.

    Standard User

    Any non Administrator teammates but own an domain email address under DDM Group will be invited as Standard User.

    Collaborator

    Any Vendor , Partner or Client of DDM Group will be invited as Collaborator

    Step by Step – Inviting Collaborator to join Teamwork.com

    Invite users

    1. Invite users
    2. Add details
    3. Who would you like to invite?
      • <<First Name>>
      • <<Last Name>>
      • <<Email Address>>
    4. Which company should they belong to?
    5. Add a new company
      • <<Company Legal Name>>
    6. <<Standard user || Collaborator>>
    7. Choose projects
    8. <<Project Name>>1
    9. Send invite
    10. Send invite to one person2
    11. Wait Inviting User to accept the Email Invitation
    1. Received Inviation accepted Email.
    User has accepted your invitation
    User has accepted your invitation

    Invitation Accepted By User

    1. Login User Email 3
    2. Received the Email sent from [email protected].4
    Administrator has added you into Teamwork
    Administrator has added you into Teamwork
    1. Get Started5
    2. Start collaborating with your team today
      • Role = Team Member
      • I would like to receive news about Teamwork products, services, and events.
      • By signing up, you agree to the storing of your data. Privacy Statement.
    5. Create a password
    6. Finish Sign up
    Teamwork User Invitation Finish Signup
    Teamwork User Invitation Finish Signup
    1. Completed
    2. Please save the password somewhere safe for future login.

    People Configuration

    Configuration should be carried out for the People (i.e. the User) after that People is created.

    1. diamonddm.teamwork.com/app/people/people
    3. <<TEAMMATE_FULLNAME>>
    5. Permissions
    AdministratorYes | No
    Is this user an administrator?Yes
    Can this user manage task templates?Yes
    Can this user manage custom fields?No
    Can this user access the calendar?Yes
    Give automatic access to all future projects?No
    Permission Tab Configuration
    Standard User or CollaboratorYes | No
    Is this user an administrator?No
    Can this user access project templates?No
    Can this user manage project templates?No
    Can this user add projects?No
    Can this user manage task templates?No
    Can this user manage people and companies?No
    Can this user manage custom fields?No
    Can this user access the calendar?Yes
    Permission Tab Configuration
    1. Preferences
    Administrator OR Standard User OR CollaboratorYes | No
    Receive task/milestone completed emails?Yes
    Receive ‘Added as a follower’ emails?Yes
    Play a sound when the user receives a reminder or alert?Yes
    Receive daily ‘Project Report’ email?No
    Give automatic access to all future projects?No
    Use ‘Markdown’ for messages and comments?Yes
    Show only notifications for items they’re followingYes
    Receive status update notifications/emails?Yes
    Alert the user if they forget to notify people when they comment?Yes
    Enter time log duration in shorthandNo
    Permission Tab Configuration

    Teamwork.com APP Installation

    For mobility please also install the APP version of the Teamwork.com 

    1. Google Play Store
    2. Apple App Store

    Footnotes

    1. Do NOT tick the Compan Name. Tick the Project Name instead. ↩︎
    2. An email will be sent from [email protected] to the inviting users. ↩︎
    3. Email inbox of Inviting User ↩︎
    4. Email Title = You’ve been added by <<Administrator>> to collaborate on Diamond Digital Marketing (HK) Ltd ↩︎
    5. Once the user clicked the Get Started button, a new tab of the browser will be openned and the User will be brought to https://diamonddm.teamwork.com/launchpad/login/projects ↩︎
  • Attach File in a Task via linking Google Drive in Teamwork.com

    Attach File in a Task via linking Google Drive in Teamwork.com

    Definition

    While working on a Task in a project, it is very common that either input raw files or output delivering files are needed to work with the Task. It is a must for us to prepare a central storage where we can store the project files while satisfying the access rights concern. Meanwhile, after uploading the project files to that central storage, to reduce the time cost of searching, we need to attach (i.e. link up) the project files to a particular Task# in Teamwork.com.

    Example of attaching File in Task via linking Google Drive

    Teamwork Attachment In Google Drive
    Teamwork Attachment In Google Drive

    Problem Pattern its Solves

    Although we can always choose to attach a file by simply clicking on + Add Files inside the Teamwork.com Task interface, it is strongly not recommended to do so due to the following reasons:

    Limited storage capacity

    Teamwork.com’s paid plan only allows 5GB storage capacity, which is far less than the 2,000GB storage in our company’s Google Drive.

    Limited access for application outside Teamwork.com

    Anyone who doesn’t have access to a particular project in Teamwork.com cannot access the files stored in Teamwork.com.

    Lack of going conern

    One day, if we no longer use Teamwork.com, all the files will no longer be accessible.

    Step By Step on attaching a File to a Task via Google Drive

    Attach a File (via Google Drive) in Task Level

    1. Teamwork.com
    2. <<TARGET_TASK>>
    3. Files > Manage Task Attachments
    4. Google Drive > + Create
    5. Create a new folder...
    6. Name of the new folder = <<TASK#>>
    7.  Search for...
    8. <<TASK#>>
    Teamwork Link In Selected File In Google Drive
    Teamwork Link In Selected File In Google Drive
    1. Drag and Drop the <<TARGET_FILE>> into the window.1
    2. Tick <<TARGET_FILE>>
    3. Link-in Selected Files
    4. Done
    Teamwork Attachment In Google Drive
    Teamwork Attachment In Google Drive

    You can see the file is now attached in the Task while keep storing in the Google Drive.

    Underlying Linked Google Drive Folder
    Underlying Linked Google Drive Folder

    While collaborators who have the access rights of the target Task can access the attached file, anyone who cannot access the Task via Teamwork.com interface can still access the attached file via traditional way in the Google Drive.

    Attach a File (via Google Drive) in Comment Level

    Instead of attaching a file in Task Level, you can also choose to attach file in Comment Level. In fact , the steps will be almost the same as attaching file in Task Level, except:

    1. <<TARGET_TASK>>
    2. <<TARGET_COMMENT>>
    3. Attach a File > Google Drive
    Attach File in Task Comment
    Attach File in Task Comment

    Conclusion

    By attaching the file with associated Task and storing them in Google Drive, we can significantly help future yourself, client and collaborators to cut the time cost on searching related Task Attachments.

    1. Please refer to the article File Naming Convention to see how you name the attaching file. ↩︎
  • Task Instruction in Teamwork.com

    Task Instruction in Teamwork.com

    Defintion

    Task Instruction is the Instruction found in the Task Description Field written by the Task Creator. Sometimes the images related to the Task Instruction will be pasted into the Task Comment, which consists of part of the Task Instruction.

    The Task Instruction will be attached to SKUd# level, which means 1 SKUd# will only have 1 Task Instruction, and 1 Task Instruction will only attach to 1 SKUd#.

    All the Task Specification (e.g. Start Date and End Date of a Task) which is modified by a particular button and is NOT modified inside the Task Description Field , is not regarded as part of the Task Instruction.

    How is the Task Instruction and Task Specification looks like

    Task List Template to SKUd 1 to 7 Digit
    Task List Template to SKUd 1 to 7 Digit

    What Problems a Task Instruction Framework Solves

    Ambiguous Task Scope which make the Task not executable

    Imagine if the Task Creator wrote an instruction in the Task Description and simply told you to make USD$10 million net profit in the upcoming 365 days. Anyone with common sense will realise that this is not a Task which can be executed by one person. Instead of naming it as a “Task”, it is better to name it as an “Objective” which should be broken down into hundreds of tasks and executed by a whole company.

    The more ambiguous the Task Description , the higher authority the Task Creator should assign to the Task Executor to make a decision, and the higher requirement of the Task Executor.

    In this sense, a Task Instruction Framework is going to provide a benchmark on how to define the Task Scope by writing the Task Description which makes the Task executable by the assigned Task Executor.

    Ambiguous meaning of the Wording

    While with different culture , employment and academic background, it is very likely that each person will use different wording or technical terms to describe the same phenomenon with a Task Instruction. 

    For example, when a client is asking you to place an ad on Facebook, he/she may probably refer to Meta where your ads are supposed to be shown in both Facebook, Instagram , Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp. 

    In this case, the wording “Facebook” has ambiguous meaning that it can be referred to a Company or a particular Social Media.

    While the wording with ambiguous meaning occurs in the Task Instruction, whether or not that Task can be executed accurately will be by chance, which means additional communication cost and error fixing cost will be incurred.

    Even worse, imagine if your superior provides you a word inside the Task instruction with ambiguous meaning which drives you to execute the Task wrongly, do you dare to stand up and request your superior to improve the skill of writing Task Instruction next time? 

    Most of the time people (if not you) will not give feedback to their superior because it will take risks of being blame. While they have learnt and transformed  ,next time when they encounter another wording with ambiguous meaning in the Task instruction, to avoid being blame (which is always in a higher priority than making achievement) they will become bureaucratic and will simply passively pause the task and wait for the instruction from their superior and resume the Task after the wording is clearly defined, instead of proactively suggest the meaning of the wording which they think is approproate for the Task.

    Their action makes the Task not wrong as the mistakes can be avoided , while at the same time it also they also did not make anything correct as the Task Task is paused. This “not wrong but also not right” phenomenon called Bureaucratic. 

    This poisoned bureaucratic culture will bring an organisation to shrink (if not die) gradually. All of these are starting from an ambiguous wording inside an Task Instruction.

    By applying a Task Instruction Framework, we will make sure that the Task Instruction to be as crystal clear as it can be , which in turn makes the Task Instruction executable without any trap left to the Task Executor.

    Time on writing duplicated Instruction

    While most of the Task Instruction of the same SKUd is expected to have same Task Objective, Task Input and Output. Repeating writing the same instruction for same Task will be a waste of time.

    Task Instruction in Teamwork.com is expected to modularize the Task Instruction so a particular Task Instruction can be repeatedly used in another project.

    Lack of Feedback From the Assignee

    While some of the research and development tasks which even the assignor him/herself did not execute the task before, it is unrealistic to expect the task instruction to be perfect and precise. 

    Most of the time the instructions found in the research and development task simply provide a direction , instead of step by step guideline , for the assignee to carry out the task. 

    In this case, a feedback mechanism is crucial for the assignee to feedback to the assignor every single decision making point during his/her execution, such that the assignor can fine tune the precision of the task instruction to make it more measurable , quantifiable and observable in the next task assignment. 

    With a Task Instruction Framework, the feedback from the assignee can be contributed to excel the Task Instruction.

    Components of an Task Instruction

    A quality Task Instruction is the prerequisite of the quality output of a Task. As an Assignor who places the task order, following components are required to be shown in the Task Instruction every time . The components of the Task Instruction will be denoted as “[]”.

    Below are the Task components which will be sync with the SKUd Specification in Zoho Book. These Task components will be seen by the Clients. For comprehensive explanation regarding specification of SKUd, please refer to article SKUd Specification.

    [Basic Service Scope]

    Basic Service Scope describes the direction of standard services that will be rendered if no additional add-on is purchased. Each SKUd will have a different basic service scope.

    [Excluded Service Scope]

    It describes which service direction is not included (i.e. excluded) in the basic service scope. For example, In a Copywriting Translation SKUd, only Translation service will be included, while Installation service (e.g. installing the translated copywriting into the website) will be excluded.

    [Prerequisite]

    Prerequisite of a SKUd describes what should be provided , either by Client or 3rd Parties, before the SKUd can be rendered successfully.

    For example, if the Client want to ask DDM Group to help them install the Google Analytics 4 into their website , the client should provide the Access Rights of Both the Google Analytics 4 account as well as the Access Rights of the Website.

    [Specification]

    The Specification component describes the quantified deliverables in terms of following aspects:

    1. Service Quantity
    2. Unit of Service Quantity
    3. Service Frequency
    4. Service Deliverable
    5. Optional Adds-on

    Below are the Task components which will be accessed by ONLY DDM’s Group Teammate . i.e. Clients or Vendors cannot see this part.

    [Background]

    Task Background of a task is crucial but always be skipped by the Assignor or even by the Assignee him/herself.

    The background of a task makes the Assignee know how to make decision based on the dynamically changing environment in real time. 

    To understand how important the background of a Task is , let’s demonstrate with the example below.

    Assumed the assignor Anna assigned a task to Joanna with the Task Description in below:

    • Please take Bus Route 55 and depart from office at 16:00 and arrive at the Church at 17:00 today.

    Imagine in 15:45 , by checking in Google map, Joanna realized that there is a severe traffic jam of the main road which Bus Route 55 will pass, and if Anna is stuck into a meeting which she cannot read the question sent from Joanna, do you think Anna will expect Joanna will make a decision by herself on how to tackle the problem?

    Of course Anna can write in the Task description to emphasise that if in case the Task instruction is not executable, please raise it before making any decision. However, most of the time it is very unlikely that the Assignor can predict and enumerate all the scenarios that the Task may derive.

    Therefore, it is reasonable for Anna to expect Joanna to make decisions on her own in case there is any unexpected situation. 

    Following background of the task will drive Joanna to a totally different decision:

    Task Background 1 – If Joanna can arrive at the Church at 17:00 today, the company can earn USD$1,000,000.

    Task Background 2 – Anna wants Joanna to measure how much time she needs to spend on taking the Bus Route 55 as Anna would like to take the same Route in next day heading to the client’s meeting.

    Under Task Background 1 , if there is a traffic jam in the road, Anna will expect Joanna to choose any other alternatives to arrive at the Church at 17:00 no matter the cost. Even if Joanna takes a drone taxi which costs her USD$1,000 , it will be acceptable compared to what the company is going to earn.

    On the contrary, under Task Background 2 , even though there is a traffic jam in the road, Anna will still expect Joanna to take Bus Route 55 so that Anna can measure the worst scenario of the arriving time during a traffic jam. 

    Now you can realize how important the Task Background will affect the quality of the output if you expect the Assignee to make a decision on him/herself if the default task description is not 100% executable.

    [Objective]

    Task Objective is a quantifiable , observable and measurable statement which can be delivered by the Assignee given specific resources provided to the Assignee.

    An quantifiable , observable and measurable objective is the prerequisite of an executable task. A task should be executable before it can be executed properly and correctly. It is the duty of the assignor to place an executable task for the assignee. 

    To understand what an executable task looks like, let’s start with the following objective:

    Objective 1

    To make profit in the business.

    While making profit is a correct objective which every business is dreaming of , the statement “making profit” is definitely not a good objective statement due to the fact that it is not measurable, quantifiable and observable.

    To refine the objective statement to make it executable , let’s see another version in below:

    Objective 2

    To make a profit of USD$1,200,000 in the year of 2025 which the profit should be generated from operation instead of selling of fixed assets. This profit should be reflected in the financial reports audited by the auditor.

    Compared with Objective 1 , Objective 2 is much more measurable (operation instead of fixed assets selling), quantifiable (USD$1,200,000) and observable (shown in financial reports).

    Nevertheless, it is still not a objective statemetn which is easy to execute in daily life. If the assignor want the task to be executable, he/she can further deintegrate the task into subtasks. The granularity of how small the task should be decoupled highly depends on the experience and capabilities of the assignee. 

    For example, when you assign a task to a Sales Director, most likely the granularity shown in Objective 2 will be good enough. On the contrary , if you want to assign the task to a Sales Manager, It is better to further break down the task in a deeper level as below:

    • With the following Sales Matrix, hit the sales target of USD$100,000 per month in the whole year of 2025 as below:
    • Sales Target assigned to each 4 Branches : USD25,000/mo
    • Sales Target to each 5 salesperson in each branch : USD$5,000 / person / mo
    • Sales Target of Hero Product [A] : USD$1,000 x 4
    • Sales Target of Hook Product [B] : USD$100 x 10

    So you can see that it is an optimisation process on how to find out the optimal point of the granularity of a task.

    [Input]

    Input of a task is referring to any material or information which is the prerequisite of carrying out a task. While there are quite a lots of types of input, there are some input type which is common in daily task:

    Input Material / InformationUse Case
    Access Rights of Meta Ads A/cPlace Ads on behalf of client
    Business Registration Certificate SoftcopyDomain registration on behalf of client
    Blank Order Registration FormPass to the client for order registration
    CashTo purchase
    Step By Step GuidelineGuide the Task Assignee to carry out the task correctly and punctually.

    It is the responsibility of the assignee to provide the input information to the assignee inside the task instruction in order to carry out the task.

    Meanwhile, as an assignee , you have to understand that there are 1,000+ predefined Task instructions within DDM Group, given the ever changing business environment, it is impossible for the assignor to keep the task instruction 100% updated. It is the assignee responsibility to give feedback to the assignor if you find any outdated / missing input information which is crucial for the task execution.

    The assignor will modify the Task Instruction Framework after hearing the feedback from the assignee and hence the input of the Task Instruction will be punctual next time. 

    Please be reminded that most of the time , the output of your task will be the input of other tasks, which forms a system. For the detail on what is a system and how it perform, please refer to the article Build a Business Process Management System – System Index Concepts.

    Specification of an Input

    To make the input functional, following specification should be found in the details of the Input:

    Source of Input

    Source of input is referring to where you (as an assignee) get the details of the input.

    For example, if the Input is the Login Password Credential of a Google Analytics Account, you may be suggested to get the Login Password Credential by either:

    1. Ask for client , OR
    2. Find in CRM in DDM’s Group, OR
    3. Find in the current Task Instruction , OR

    If the Login Password Credential is already stored in the CRM in DDM’s Group, it will be a waste of time to ask for the client again. Besides, due to the data privacy, it is not a good practice to record the Login Password Credential directly in the task instruction. 

    While the source of the Input is dynamic to different clients and different scenarios. It is the duty of the assignor to provide the source of Input inside the Task Instruction.

    Meanwhile, as an assignee , if you find it is happy for you to find the Login Password Credential easily through the CRM in DDM’s Group, this means someone had recorded the Login Password Credential at the time they got the information from the client. Therefore, as a virtuous teammate in DDM, please always proactively record the Login Password Credential in the CRM of DDM’s Group. In case there is no such option in the CRM to record the Login Password Credential of a specific application, please raise out loudly in the comment of the Task.

    Trustworthiness of Input

    Trustworthiness of an Input means to what extent the input can be trusted by the assignee. The degree of trustworthiness is an important parameter for the assignee to carry out a task, especially in the case where the assignor may expect the assignee to make a decision on his/her own. 

    Imagine a case where the client agreed to a daily ads budget of USD$100, while in the Task Instruction, it is suggested to set USD$1,000 as the daily budget in the Google Ads account. Any reasonable assignee who has paid attention to his/her work will raise out the potential problem that he/she may think of. In fact, if the assignee failed to raise this problem, he/she may probably not be in a working mood. 

    However, the assignor may not tell the assignee that there is a trick in Google Ads that we have to configure a much higher daily budget in order to make the ads running properly. Even though we have set a USD$1,000 daily budget, at the end of every day the ads budget will not be fully utilised due to the fierce ads bidding environment.  

    In the case above, it is necessary for the assignor to find a way to tell the assignee that simply trust the Task Instruction (i.e. USD$1,000) and execute accordingly. And therefore the trustworthiness of the input of the daily budget USD$1,000 will be categorized as Feasibility Proven (100%), which is expected to be executed by the assignee without any hesitation. 

    Like any of the political office environment in the world, it is make sense for the assignee to afraid of executing an exteriorly illogical task because it is probably the assignee who is going to bear the responsibility if the assignee failed to raise out the problem before they carry out the task. 

    You can sense that the assignee does not know what to ground on raising out the phenomenon that they perceive as a problem. To cater to this dilemma, it is the responsibility of the assignor to let the assignee know the trustworthiness of the input. 

    The rule of thumb is, as long as the input is classified by the assignor as 100% trustworthy, in case there is any failure due to that particular piece of input, the responsibility of the assignee will be waived. 

    On the contrary , if the trustworthiness of the input is scored under 100% or lower, it is the responsibility for the assignee to raise out the phenomenon which they may regard as a problem. 

    Please refer to the 

    Category of TrustworthinessDegree of TrustworthinessDefinition
    Authoritative Ground Fact 100%The Input is provided by an authoritative source which is based on a solid fact. 
    Military Order100%Military Order level which expects the assignee to simply follow and carry out the task with no doubt. Most likely the assignor acquired some knowledge in advance which is hard to share to the assignee at that moment. 
    Feasibility Proven100%The Input or task has many past successful reference cases.
    Claimed Ground Fact75%Probably the claimed ground fact is provided by the Client who does not really know what he/she is talking about.
    Analysis50%Instead of a fact, the input is more prone to an human analysis , which is not a ground fact and since it involves potential human bias.

    For example:

    Fact : A man is 190 cm in height.

    Analysis : A man is very tall.
    Trial and Error Instruction50%The assignor has no idea whether the input is correct or not. The assignee is expected to feedback his/her opinion or experience to the assignor in order to optimise the quality of the Task Instruction in the future
    For Your Reference Only10%Can be regarded as facilitating the brainstorm instead of a solid instruction. 
    Hypothesis10%It’s just an assumption which no body know the answer (or even the question) in this moment. 
    Task# Reference

    Task# reference means any previous same or similar tasks which are carried out by other teammates.

    While sometimes Task Reference (i.e. in the form of Task#) will be provided in the Task Instruction, as an assignee, you can also find out the Task Reference by your own by means of:

    1. Search the SKUd# in the Teammate.com interface
    2. Search the SKUd# in bGraph

    It will be the assignor duty to keep an updated and hygiene bGraph such that it can be performed as a Knowledge Library for all the teammate to take reference when carrying out tasks new to him/her.

    [Output]

    Output is the observable material deliverable that you are going to deliver after the assignee has completed the task. It is crucial for the assignor to define the specification and expectation of the output such that the assignee can carry out the task accordingly.

    Please be noted that 50% of the failed task is due to the fact that the expectation is not clearly explained to the assignee. 

    Output Specification

    Below is the specification of the output that you will be expected to be found in the Task Instruction.

    Deliverable Presence

    Following is the some of Deliverable Presence example that can be found in a Task Instruction

    1. Report
    2. Document
    3. Installation of an application
    4. Production of a snippet of source code

    It is crucial for the assignor to define the Deliverable Presence in the task. For example, if you request the assignee to write you an article titled 2025 Digital Marketing Outlook, you can expect different levels of Deliverable Presence

    1. Plain Text in Task Comment
    2. Proofreading by assignor
    3. Text with Typesetting in Task Comment
    4. Text with Typesetting installed in WordPress Blog

    You can see that in fact there are 3 processes to produce the deliverable:

    1. Copywriting
    2. Proofreading
    3. Typesetting
    4. Installation

    Do NOT expect the assignee to guess which level you want. It will be the duty of the assignor to clearly state which processes are needed.

    Deliverable File Format

    In case the deliverable of the Task is a document, the file format should be clearly stated. Examples of file formats are as below:

    1. .pdf
    2. .docx
    3. .gsheet
    4. .esd
    5. .xlsx
    6. .eml

    Again, it is the duty of the assignor to define the file format of the deliverable for the assignee. 

    For example, as an assignor , if you want to have a 2025 Marketing Budget Plan from the assignee, instead of a .pdf file which you cannot further edit the content , you may want to have the Budget Plan with .xlsx file format (i.e. Microsoft Excel) for modification. 

    However, in another case while you need to send the Budget Plan to the client with an authorized company chop, then it is better for the assigned to save the file as .pdf format such that the content inside the budget plan cannot be modified any further.

    On top of that , if you even want to share to your teammate to comment and review before you can send to your client, it is better for the deliverable to be in .gsheet format (i.e. Google Spreadsheet). 

    As an assignor , while you spend a little extra time and effort to define the deliverable file format in advance before the task execution, it will help the assignee to save a lots of time to convert their file format after they completed the task. 

    Delivery Destination

    There are few examples of what a Deliverable Destination should look like:

    1. DDM’s Group Company Google Drive
    2. Record in DDM’s CRM
    3. Task Attachment
    4. Task Comment
    5. WhatsApp

    With no surprise, it is also the duty of the assignor to define the Deliverable Destination for the assignee. 

    As an assignor , imagine if the assignee completed a task and sent the .xlsx deliverable file to you via your personal WhatsApp account. In fact , there is literally nothing wrong for the assignee to do that if you do not define the Deliverable Destination in the Task Instruction in advance. 

    The cost of not spending time to clearly define the Deliverable Destination is that you have to use your Mobile Phone to open the .xlsx file, which assumes you have the MS Excel viewer installed in your Mobile Phone. And if you want to read it in your desktop due to a bigger screen, you either have to upload the file to your Company’s Google Drive, or you (as a assignor) will utilise your authority to ask the assignee to upload the .xlsx file to the Company Google Drive and send you the URL via email. 

    No matter which way you are using, you can see lots of extra and meaningless workloads are wasted. 

    [Caution]

    Caution is anything that you need to pay attention to before or after you carry out the task. While there is infinite number of caution to pay attention, there are some comment points that we can address:

    Time vs Quality Oriented

    Time Oriented Task

    For example, in an hourly based project where we charge our client USD$10 for an hour ‘s production, it makes sense for us to produce the output within 1 hour. In this case, the task will be regarded as Time-oriented , which means you (as an assignee) cannot modify hundreds of times to pursue perfection of your deliverable. 

    Another scenario is Research & Development (R&D) tasks in nature. Imagine if you , as an assignee , are required to write a Italy Market Entry Plan for a product, you cannot afford a 1,000 days effort to conduct the market research due to the fact that there will be an infinite amount of information that you can research for. If you do not set a time limit for the task, the task will never be completed. 

    Quality Oriented Task

    On the contrary, in a scenario that the web server of a VIP client’s website is down and you have been assigned a task to bring the web server alive, then we have to figure out the root cause and bring back the web server no matter the cost it takes. 

    Hybrid Task

    Due to the fact that it is impossible for the assignee to figure out whether the task is a time-oriented or quality-oriented task, it is crucial for the assignor to define clearly to the assignee. 

    But in reality, sometimes it will rather an optimisation problem instead of a binary problem (i.e. either Time-Oriented OR Quality-Oriented)

    For example, in a Research & Development Task in nature, if the assignor wants to write a task instruction on installing the Meta Conversion API to the client’s website. Due to the fact that there are no such case ever been carried out in the company, the assignor may assign the task as below in sequence

    Tasks:

    1. Assignee read article on internet and write step by step guideline on how to install Meta Conversion API in website (Max 2 Hours)
    2. Assignor reviewed the output of Task#1 and further define the subtask as below:
      1. Client assign the Access Rights of Meta Business Suite to DDM Group 
      2. Client assign the Access Rights of Website to DDM Group
    3. Assignee install the Meta Conversion API into the website (Max 2 hours)
    4. Assignee feedback the obstacles or difficulties to the assignor.
    5. Assignor further assign the subtask to the assignee as below:
      1. Raise question in Github or Stackoverflow 
      2. Keep reading related articles in internet (Max 4 hours)
      3. Outsource an 3rd party Meta verified partner to complete the task.

    We can see that in the Meta Conversion API installation task, there is a mixture of time-oriented and quality-oriented sub tasks to be carried out before the task can be completed. This is what we called Optimisation (i.e. opposite to Management) Task. 

    In an Optimisation Task, the assignor is unable to provide a 100% clear and executable task instruction in advance due to the fact that even he/herself does not know what he/she is seeking for. We called this problem as (R009) You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know.

    To handle the Optimisation Task, it is the skill for the assignor to further break down the task into subtask based on the feedback of the previous subtasks carried out by the assignee to decide what to do next.

    The rule of thumb is , the more criteria are met , the higher chance the task will be a Management Task. On the contrary, the more criteria is met , the higher chance the task to be an Optimisation Task. 

    Criteria

    1. The Task come with a SKUd#
    2. The Task is found in Task Template List
    3. Task# Reference can be found in the Task Instruction. 

    Reminder to the Assignee

    Although it is the duty of the assignor to define the task instruction to facilitate you to carry out the task, for some reasons it is not always feasible for the assignor to define 100% clear in the task instruction. As a virtuous teammate, therefore:

    Read and Comprehen Every Single Word in the Task Instruction

    Always read through all the content of the Task Instructions, as well as any supplementary information in the Task comment before you carry out the task. This means if there are 5 inputs and 7 outputs in the task, you need to study all those 5 inputs and 7 outputs one by one, instead of reading 1 input and immediately do another 1 output. 

    Raise Out Question before you carry out the Task

    Before you carry out the task, raise it if you think there is any input or output specification missing in the Task Instruction. Remember it will be for your own good because once you raise out and give feedback to the assignor, the assignor will update the Task Instruction Template hence the Task Specification will be more comprehensive in next time. For example, in a Google Analytics 4 Account (GA4) Creation task, after you have created the GA4 ID, you may also have the login and password information on your hand. In case there no output requirement for you to record in the DDM’s Group CRM, then it will be a good practice for you to raise out in the comment.

    Read Task Instruction More Than 1 Time

    DO NOT only read the Task Instruction ONCE. Imagine that there are 5 inputs and 7 outputs in the task, which you (as an assignee) cannot complete all the 7 outputs within 1 day. While you have only completed 3 outputs and leave the remaining 4 outputs after the 2-day weekend holiday. On Monday when you resume the tasks, while in fact you have almost forgotten what the Task Instruction is talking about, you still keep starting the task in the Task Instruction of 4th output. Due to the fact that some important information is mentioned in the 2nd input which you have already forgotten, you may fail to carry out the 4th to 7th output correctly. Statistics tell us this is one of the most common reasons why an assignee makes a mistake. And therefore, please always READ the Task Instruction:

    • BEFORE carrying out the Task
    • WHEN resuming the Task
    • AFTER Completed a Output
    • BEFORE submitting the Output

    Handling Management Task

    When you (as an assignee) are assigned a Management Task, it will have a definite right or wrong benchmark of the deliverable. It is likely that the requirement of the deliverable is clearly defined in the Task Instruction. If you think of a new way to carry out the task, or if you think it has a more efficient way to carry out the task, please RAISE OUT in the comment before you carry out. Please always remember that there are many angles and stakeholders that should be taken into consideration during carrying out a task. Sometimes what you (as an assignee) can see may not reflect the whole picture. On the contrary, it is also not appropriate for the assignor to prohibit the creative idea from the assignee. It is an art more than a science to assign a task. And hence communication is as important as production. 

    Handling Optimisation Task

    When you (as an assignee) are assigned a Optimisation Task, there may be little case for you to reference to , it is your show time to demonstrate your problem solving skills. Please always keep in mind that you should always set a time limit to this kind of task. Task without any time limit is simply a money burner. Besides, please do not expect any feasible and comprehensive task instruction to be provided to you as the assignor may need your output to determine the next step of the Task. (And that’s reason why it called Optimisation) 

    Communication is as important as Production.

    1. If you don’t understand the task, or you think that there is ambiguous meaning in some words in the task, please feel free (i.e. don’t be shy) to RAISE OUT. Remember if you have a chance to understand a Task Instruction, your teammate in the future may face the same problem. It is the duty of the assignor to clearly define the Task Instruction in order to let the assignee carry out the task seamlessly. 
    2. When you raise a question, RAISE OUT LOUDLY. Due to the fact that while you (as an assignee) may only need to read the task instructions from 1 (or max 2) assignor, on the contrary, your assignor may need to read the feedback from 10+ teammates and clients in one day. It is normal for you to wait for 1 or 2 days before you can get any feedback. If you think the point you raised is a prerequisite for you to complete the task, please raise it out loud by sending WhatsApp to your assignee. Please do not hallucinate that you have raised a stupid question or your assignor doesn’t like you so that he/she does not reply to your comment. As an assignor, it is trained to define the task instruction as clearly as possible. So don’t be shy to ask. For the manner of writing comments, please refer to the article How to Comment in Teamwork.com. 
    3. When you have banned or rejected something, please always suggest another solution at the same time. Your assignor already fully understands how difficult the world is. Therefore ,instead of ending your comment on “Why NOT” , please always end your comment with “How To”.

  • What is Teamwork.com

    Definition

    Teamwork.com is a SaaS (Software as a Solution) which is a Project Management System applied in Diamond Digital Marketing (DDM) to manage the execution of all project.

    How teamwork.com looks like

    Example Cap Screen of Teamwork
    Example Cap Screen of Teamwork

    What Problem the Teamwork.com Solves

    Before we dived into the problems we encoutered , allow me to setup the environment that is close to the reality.

    Imagine you are working in a company which has 20 projects come from 15 companies at the same time on the fly. You are a newbie with a title Marketing Executive in this company who just reported to due for only 1 week. Your company have 50 staff. Although you direct report to your superior which is a Senior Digital Marketing Manager, both the Marketing Director and the Senior Digital Marketing Manager, as well as the clients you are serving , can and will assign you task directly.

    Searching Inefficiency

    Multi Project Environment

    One day your superior is asking you to find out the “Logo PNG File” from one of the loyal clients which your company had already worked on 3 projects with. While you start searching for the “Logo PNG File”, you should make the following decisions before you can find the file.

    • In which Google Drive you should search for as the Logo PNG File should have been saved in somebody’s Google Drive that you don’t have access rights to. Imagine each time when you are searching for 1 file, you may need to search for 5 Google Drives, which means 80% (4/5) of the time on searching is wasted for each File you searched. Imagine if you need to search for 1000 files in a year, how much time you have spent on the searching activities which didn’t bring any productivity.
    • What Keyword to search for. While you are searching for an appropriate Google Drive in your company, what Keyword should you search in the Google Drive? While there are 4 components which locate a correct file:
    1. Client’s Name (e.g. DDM_Logo)
    2. File Title (e.g Logo)
    3. File Version (e.g. v1 , v2, v20240815)
    4. Approval Status (e.g. Approved , Rejected By Client)
    5. File Variant (e.g. 1000×1000 pixels, Editable , Transparent Background)

    Imagine if the Logo File you searched for simply came out with the result “Logo.png” , how can you decide the 5 points above? And unfortunately, most of the time you don’t even know (before you read this article) there are 5 components you should be considered during searching a file.

    The Project Management System (Teamwork.com) is going to eliminate the searching cost.

    Multi Task Environment

    On another day, your superior complained that she is not happy with the speed of your delivering the output. She wanted to help you to speed up your work and she asked you the following questions:

    1. How much tasks you are on hand right now
    2. What are the priorities of all these tasks and what is the logic behind prioritising these tasks. 
    3. What tasks are waiting for the client’s reply before we can move forward.

    Before you can answer these questions, do you have a mechanism to record all these tasks? Even if you have this mechanism , how much time do you need to spend each day to maintain the hygiene of the record?

    How much time do you need to spend on searching for all the tasks and consolidate them into 1 spreadsheet and report to your superior?

    Even worse , while you are “searching: for all the tasks , do you know what keyword to “search” for a particular task? How can you guarantee that you didn’t miss any task when each person will use a different title to mention the same task in the email?

    In turn, probably you may need 4 hours to produce this report to your superior, and that is exactly the reason why you cannot deliver the output on time (because your superior asked for a report which consumed you 4 hours). 

    While your superior , the Senior Marketing Manager , having spent 1 mins to read your report, now she understand how challenge you are to handle all the 50 tasks at the same time, don’t forget that there are still the Marketing Director and your 20 Clients who didn’t (and will not) read your report , and therefore keep complaining they are waiting for so long for your output. 

    One of the functions of Teamwork.com is helping you to enumerate and prioritise all the tasks in one click.

    Multi Communication Channel Environment

    Imagine this scenario : While you have been added into Digital Marketing Project Whatsapp Group with 6 people involved which you just joined 1 week ago. One day your client in the Whatsapp group is asking for you to find out a Last Year Budget Plan Cap Screen .jpeg File which was sent to your company 1 year before. Lucky the Digital Marketing Project Whatsapp Group is created by the company owned Whatsapp Number, so that you go for this mobile phone handset and start searching for the cap screen. As it is a cap screen that the client for sure didn’t rename the cap screen file for search-friendly purposes, you started to scroll back to top from the very bottom of the Whatsapp Group to search for that cap screen, which took you 15 mins but in vain.

    You start wondering if the client had really sent via the Digital Marketing Project Whatsapp Group. You send a message to all the teammates in the same Whatsapp Group and ask for them to search for the cap screen .jpeg file inside their personal whatsapp conversation box with that client. After less than 1 mins all your colleagues told you that they found nothing. You wonder if they really take it seriously. But unfortunately you cannot prove anything.

    You know it is unlikely that it can be found in the email box, but you still take a chance to search in the email box of the ex-staff who acted as your position. As the cap screen will not be assigned a very search-friendly name , you can only filter all the email with an attachment , and read the email title one by one. Found nothing, for sure.

    And finally you compromised and you told your client that your side lost the Last Year Budget Plan Cap Screen. Lucky your kind client told you that he remembered he sent the cap screen file to you via a Google Drive Link. So that in the Whatsapp Group and search for the Google Drive received around 1 year before. Bingo ! You finally got the Last Year Budget Plan (and in the very inner you , you muttered why the client didn’t find it by himself) , although you have already spent 1 hour to do so.

    Do not underestimate the time you spent within a year to seeking for a password, as well as resetting password of all the applications you have used in the company.

    As you are the Digital Marketing Executive who just onboard for 1 week, you should have the login credentials of the digital assets from both of the 20 clients that are under your manage, including 50+ digital assets including :

    Multi Authority Environment

    While one of your job duties are to do the regular Facebook Page Post copywriting, you need to get the approval from your superior by emailing the copywriting to her, before you can send the ready-to-publish version to your client for approval. Once your superior approved the copywriting and replied your email with a little bit comment and adjustment which is not supposed to be seen by your client, you cannot directly forward the email from your superior to your client without deleting the email content that is not approrpiate for the client. And therefore you need to create a brand new Email every time you have a new version of copywriting, but all these emails are actually referring to the same article. Imagine if you have 60 articles per month , which each article is modified 3 times on average, you are additionaly created 120 emails. How do you search for the latest version or approved version after 3 months will be definitely a challenge.

    By using the feature in Teamwork.com as the Project Management System, this kind of searching cost can be eliminated.

    Multi Talent Environment

    Imagine when you are building an e-shop for your client, your client is requesting you to create a “Banner” at the top of the “Front of the Website“to show the hot item of the eshop. When you , as a Salesperson , reply to reconfirm to your client that you will ask the web designer to design a “Hero Banner” in the “Landing Page” . So you pass this requirement to your Web Designer, which she asks you how many numbers of Product Photos are going to install into the “Hero Banner Slider”. Once she confirmed the number of photos in the slider, she passed her design with the HTML and CSS Code to the programmer to build the “Slider” , which the Slider now has an unique programming ID of “slider_home_one“. He had created a CSS Class “#slider_home_style” so that in the future any Slider can apply the same CSS style to make the design align. 

    Can you realise that even though in the same organisation ,both of you (Salesperson), Client, Web Design and the Programmer are referring to the same object (“Banner”), they are in fact using totally different wording / jargon to describe the world, not to mention if there people in different company with different academic background are using different wording to refer to the same thing. In linguistic this problem pattern is called Polymorphism.  

    By using the Project Management System – Teamwork.com, in order to avoid the misunderstanding , we are trying our best to standardize the wording that all different people are going to use to describe the same thing.

    Communication Inefficiency

    Communication Mesh

    Imagine when you are working for a project with 10 people, it is quite common that you will create a Whatsapp Group and invite everyone who is involved into this project to join. 

    Everytime when you want to update the progress of one of your web design tasks, even though you initially just want to notify the Web Designer in the Whatsapp Group, you eventually type a “@Designer” handle in the Whatsapp Group and everyone in the Whatsapp Group will receive that message. Although you only want to communicate with 1 person (the Web Designer),in turn 8 remaining people have wasted the time to check the message and find out that the message is not relevant to them, and therefore 8 communications are wasted.

    If you want to split the Main Whatsapp Group into subgroups, you will find that finally you have no idea which Whatsapp Group you should go to for checking the previous important message that you have notified your teammate.

    Now if you are working for 20 projects with 20 Whatsapp Groups with 20 Tasks on the fly per project, you can do the maths and find out how much time of communication is wasted.

    We call this communication pattern “Mesh Topology” and in order to stream the communication , we have to turn the communication pattern from “Mesh” to “Star” Topology.

    The Project Management System Teamwork.com is here to solve this problem.

    Lack of Quality Assurance

    Input Quality Control

    While most people are alert on controlling the quality of the output of a Task, seldom people will pay attention to controlling the quality of the input of a Task. One of the prerequisites of the input of the Task is the Task Instruction.  

    Let’s illustrate the concept with 2 instructions in below:

    Instruction One : Write an article that can convert the traffic to sales

    Instruction Two: Based on the product specification found in the Product Collection – Children Footwear in our website , write an English human article (which the output will be used as a Facebook Post) within 300 words in casual tone and manner, using “love” as the sales angle,  to convert the traffic in Facebook Post to Sales Transaction , with an expected CTR of 2%.

    Which one (Instruction One and Two) do you think is more executable and the less risk of being rejected by the client after delivered?

    Obviously Instruction Two is the answer. 

    However, in reality , The instructors may think that it is not worth spending 30 minutes to write an instruction which leads the executor to write an article which can be completed within 1 hour. And therefore they will apply a “trial-and-error” approach to let the executor write a draft and modify the draft afterwards, which this method make the instructor invest least time on it.

    This method is only in favour of the instructor which in expense of the time of revising articles by the executor, which in turn brings a “loss” to the company as a whole.

    Meanwhile, due to the fact that most of the time the instructor is also the superior of the executor, the executor does not dare to challenge the quality of the instruction provided by the instructors, leading the quality of the input (i..e the instructions) with no quality control.

    To consider the interest of both instructor and executor, by creating the Templated Instructions for the repeating tasks, everytime the instructor simply calls the Templated Instruction again, so as to save the time of the instructor of repeatedly writing the same instructions details again and again.

    Moreover, we can keep fine-tuning the instructions to make it perfectly. As the Templated Instruction will be used many times, the time we invested in fine-tuning the instructions will become an “asset” (i.e. instead of expenses). 

    Here comes the feature called “Templated Task List” which exactly fits the need of Templated Instructions

    Output Quality Control

    Unlike Physical Product (i.e. SKU) which has a predefined and standardised deliverable, it is quite hard for a business to standardise the service in each deliverable.

    Imagine how you can measure the quality of the Marketing advice provided by a consultant to a restaurant and a brand of a fashion chain store?

    If we cannot quantify or measure the quality of the deliverable, that means the business is at risk, which will bring the business to failure in the long-run. 

    While staff training is another big topic regarding how to control the quality of their output, before that we can build a Task Library which stores all the delivered Tasks, no matter success or failure, into one place. Whenever the newbie wants to carry out a Task by himself, he can refer to the Task Library to gain some insights and learn the error from others , in order to save the wasted time derived from error.

    Conclusion

    Teamwork.com is a the major project management system used within the entire DDM Group. Details usage of each feature will be mentioned in another articles.

Diamond Digital Marketing Group